25 January 2015

"The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club" by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Summary from Goodreads:Join the club of unlikely quilters who show up for Amish widow Emma Yoder’s quilting classes. A troubled young woman, a struggling couple, a widower, a rough and tough biker, and a preacher’s wife make up the mismatched lot. But as their problems begin to bind them together like the scraps of fabric stitched together in a quilt, they learn to open up and lend a helping hand. Is this what God had in mind to heal hurting hearts and create beauty from fragments?I wanted to like this book. It is a familiar trope: the misfit group of people who are forced together into a situation and build friendships despite their differences. It is a story setup that I normally enjoy, but in this book it didn't gel. The dialogue didn't feel natural, and the friendships between the characters weren't fleshed out enough. The entire book seemed like a sketch of the book that someone wanted to write instead of the final draft.I have three other Wanda E. Brunstetter books on my Goodreads list. I had heard that she is one of the leading authors in the Amish fiction genre, but after this I'm not sure if I want to try another of her books.